Remarks by the Saudi state-controlled media would cause one to think that Eskimos or Pygmies attacked Riyadh, and that the world should rally to their aid. This followed the suicide bombing on Sunday, Nov. 9, in which 17 were killed and 122 wounded. Saudi officials have attributed the strike to al-Qaida operatives in Riyadh.

The most realistic news headline, of course, would be “Saudis Attack Riyadh” – rather than “Al-Qaida Attacks Riyadh” – but that would not be good PR for the world’s largest exporter of oil and Islamic fundamentalism (Wahabism, the doctrine of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.) U. S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, who was in Riyadh for talks with Crown Prince Abdullah and other senior Saudi officials, said he was “certain al-Qaida was behind the bombing … because this attack bears the hallmark of them.”

If “hallmarks” are the litmus test of certainty, then why didn’t the State Department pin the 9-11 World Trade Center squarely on Saudi fundamentalists? Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the decimation of the World Trade Center towers and the attack on the Pentagon were from Saudi Arabia. Their leader, Osama bin Laden, is Saudi Arabian by birth, and has familial ties to his homeland.

There is an undeniable global money trail by which Saudi Arabia funnels billions of dollars through various “charities” into terrorist organizations worldwide.

An incensed Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal flew to the U.S. to lobby for the release of the still-classified information on the events of 9-11 in an attempt to assure the world that Saudi Arabia had “nothing to hide.”

Is it not conceivable that the fanatical Wahabi sect, to which most Saudis belong, perpetrated this deadly assault simply to divert blame to al-Qaida? They have, to say the least, been reluctant allies in America’s war on terror.

It also isn’t surprising to learn – according to Reza F. Safa, author of “Inside Islam” – that of the more than 1,200 mosques in America, 80 percent have been built within the past 20 years – thanks in large part to Saudi money. Mr. Safa also relates, “Saudi Arabia alone has spent $87 billion since 1973 to spread Wahabism throughout the United States and Western Hemisphere.”

Has Saudi Arabia, in an attempt to export Islamic fundamentalism, created a monster? The truth is simple – and simply horrifying: If democracy came to Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden would be elected by a landslide. He is more popular among the masses than Crown Prince Abdullah, and the same can be said for the Muslim world at large.

The Saudi officials quickly blamed al-Qaida for the bombing. However, can any rational person believe that a nation – which lops off the heads of converts from Islam to Christianity – can really dumb-down a society into believing that al-Qaida Wahabism is evil, but Saudi Wahabism is not?